To safeguard the nation's sovereignty and dignity, the Legislative Yuan should push for a ban on political leaders and retired government officials visiting China, the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) said yesterday.
"We'd like to see the government restrict unauthorized people, such as political leaders and retired government officials, from conducting political exchanges with Chinese authorities until Beijing respects our sovereignty and abandons its intention to invade our territory," TSU caucus whip Lo Chih-ming (
Lo said that next Tuesday the party's caucus would move that the legislature request the Executive Yuan issue the ban. However, even if the proposal is approved, it would not be binding.
According to Article Nine of the Act Governing Relations Between Peoples of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (
Lo said that legal requirements for a resolution were satisfied when China enacted the "Anti-Secession" Law. Compounding the problem are the planned visits of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (
Lo also voiced caucus opposition to Lien and Soong accepting the "1992 consensus" as the premise for their visits and using it as preconditions for political negotiations with the Chinese authorities.
Taiwan’s growing defense preparations might be sending a stronger signal to the US than to Beijing, highlighting the need for Taipei to tailor its deterrence efforts to different audiences, a US security academic said yesterday. Stanford University Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies fellow Oriana Skylar Mastro made the comment during a Taipei Security Dialogue panel examining lessons Taiwan could draw from the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East. Mastro said she was impressed by Taiwan’s increased defense spending, emphasis on asymmetric capabilities and efforts to prepare society for conflict, but questioned whom those initiatives were influencing. She said when she asked
A total of 400 foreign “high- level” professionals have been naturalized as Republic of China (Taiwan) citizens over the past decade as the government has eased nationality rules to attract talent from a wider range of fields, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. The 400th high-level professional, who works in the electronics industry, was approved for ROC citizenship on Aug. 26, the MOI said. The MOI quoted the newly naturalized citizen as saying that Taiwan is a leader in fields such as semiconductors, electronics manufacturing, artificial intelligence development and energy technology. He also said
SIZE MATTERS: Large ships are politically attractive as visible symbols of national defense, but small surface combatants are more likely to survive an initial strike Taiwan needs to restructure its naval fleet from focusing on large warships, which are “sitting ducks” for China’s advanced tracking technology, to smaller, stealthy corvettes that are harder to detect but retain sufficient firepower to deter a Chinese invasion, a Taiwanese academic and a former US military commander said in an article published on Friday in the journal Foreign Affairs. Taiwan does not need a fleet capable of competing with the Chinese navy for traditional control of the Taiwan Strait, but rather “sea denial” capabilities that would prevent China from freely using the waterway, Taiwanese aerospace and security expert Holmes Liao
China has warned that it could cancel a planned US-China leaders’ summit if Washington approves new arms sales to Taiwan, a Japanese media outlet quoted sources as saying yesterday. US President Donald Trump, “apparently eager to showcase some diplomatic achievements ahead of November’s midterm congressional elections, places great importance on holding the summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平),” Japan’s Kyodo News reported. “While preparing for Xi’s upcoming trip, China has restated its position that the Taiwan issue is a ‘red line’ in bilateral relations,” the report said. The report said that when Xi met with Trump in Beijing in May, Xi said
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